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Purple Haze, Part Deux: Content: Image; Description: A massive cluster of galaxies located about 2.3 billion light years away, Abell 1689, shows signs of merging activity. Hundred-million-degree gas detected...

NASA Remembers: Content: Image; Description: "The world changed today. What I say or do is very minor compared to the significance of what happened to our country today when it was attacked."

Flaming Star Nebula and Meteor: Content: Image; Description: This photo shows the Flaming Star Nebula, in the constellation Auriga, a meteor streak and the very dim Comet 46/P Wirtanen

Obscure Moon: Content: Image; Description: Just before Rhea slipped behind Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft captured the moon in its disappearing act. Along with the partly obscured Rhea (949 miles, or 1,528 kilometers across) are Tethys (665 miles, or 1,071 kilometers across), at right, and Enceladus (314 miles, or 505 kilometers across), left of Tethys.

Rosetta Spacecraft Passes Asteroid Steins: Content: Image; Description: What's that diamond in the sky? Cruising though space, sometimes you'll come across an unusual object. Such was the case on Friday for ESA's Rosetta spacecraft on it's way to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.

Milky Way Road Trip: Content: Image; Description: In search of planets and the summer Milky Way, astronomer Tunç Tezel took an evening road trip. Last Saturday, after driving the winding road up Uludag, a mountain near Bursa, Turkey, he was rewarded by this beautiful skyview to the south.

Spokes in the Helix Nebula: Content: Image; Description: At first glance, the Helix Nebula (aka NGC 7293), looks simple and round. But this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, produced near the end of the life of a sun-like star, is now understood to have a surprisingly complex geometry.

Pahoehoe Break-Out: Content: Image; Description: This photo shows a break-out channel in a pahoehoe lava (basaltic lava that has a smooth, ropy surface) flow about a mile or so away from the Royal Gardens subdivision in the southeastern region of the Big Island of Hawaii.

Explosive Lava and Static Lightning: Content: Image; Description: This spectacular photo captured on the Big Island of Hawaii shows surreal static lightning flashes as seen through a massive cloud consisting of super-heated steam, sulfur dioxide, glass particles, and ash.

Generations of Stars in W5: Content: Image; Description: Giant star forming region W5 is over 200 light-years across and about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. W5's sculpted clouds of cold gas and dust seem to form fantastic shapes in this impressive mosaic of infrared images from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Ice Donuts: Content: Image; Description: These "ice donuts" are a common sight in river channels, during late winter, near South Haven, Michigan. Their origin isn’t completely understood, but they may form when wind and wave action begins to disintegrate the icy surface, once the ice has already been fractured into meter-sized polygons.

Morning Frost on the Surface of Mars: Content: Image; Description: A thin layer of water frost is visible on the ground around NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in this image taken by the Surface Stereo Imager at 6 a.m. on Sol 79 (August 14, 2008), the 79th Martian day after landing. The frost began to disappear shortly after 6 a.m. as the sun rose on the Phoenix landing site.

Sculpting the South Pillar: Content: Image; Description: Found in the South Pillar region of the Carina Nebula, these fantastic pillars of glowing dust and gas embedded with newborn stars were sculpted by the intense wind and radiation from Eta Carinae and other massive stars.

Magnetic Monster in Erupting Galaxy: Content: Image; Description: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found an answer to a long-standing puzzle by resolving giant but delicate filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275. It is the most striking example of the influence of the immense tentacles of extragalactic magnetic fields, say researchers.

Fresh Lava on Hawaii: Content: Image; Description: The photo above shows lava pouring into the Pacific Ocean from the Big Island of Hawaii as observed on March 8, 2008. Volcanoes National Park was closed for several days due to the march of the lava to the sea, and thus a helicopter was the best choice to see the Earth's freshest surface and the resulting steam created where the lava falls into the sea.

August Moons: Content: Image; Description: This August was eclipse season. The month's first New Moon and Full Moon were both seen in darkened skies during a solar and lunar eclipse.

The Life of Stars: Content: Image; Description: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this stunning true-color picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603 on March 5, 1999 with its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.

Auroral Substorm: Content: Image; Description: An extremely dynamic auroral display, which was observed from northern Finland on March 14, 2004 at 2:29 a.m. The observed auroral arcs and structures depicted here were moving and changing almost fluid-like.

Arctic Eclipse: Content: Image; Description: NASA's Terra satellite was rounding the top of the globe, making its way from the eastern tip of Siberia and across the Arctic Ocean towards northern Norway and northwest Russia, when it captured this unique view of a total solar eclipse on Aug. 1, 2008.

In Living Color: Content: Image; Description: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals the center of the magnificent barred spiral galaxy NGC 1512 in all wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared. The colors (which indicate differences in light intensity) map where newly born star clusters exist in both 'dusty' and 'clean' regions of the galaxy.

Piercing the Darkness: Content: Image; Description: A sliver of 'ringshine' pierces the darkness in this view that looks toward the unilluminated side of Saturn's rings. The ring shadows fall into darkness beyond the terminator in the north. South of the equator, a dim glow brightens the darkened globe. This light, called ringshine, comes from sunlight reflected off the sunward side of the expansive rings (the opposite face of the ringplane from this perspective).

The Unveiling: Content: Image; Description: On its 100,000th orbit of planet Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope peered into a small portion of the Tarantula Nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074, unveiling its stellar nursery. The region is a firestorm of raw stellar creation, triggered perhaps by a nearby supernova.

A Look at Maui in Near-Infrared Light: Content: Image; Description: This photo of the West Maui Mountains, looking west, was taken during a flight to Kahului, Hawaii. It was captured with a near-infrared optimized camera.

Black Hole Candidate Cygnus X-1: Content: Image; Description: Is that a black hole? Quite possibly. The Cygnus X-1 binary star system contains one of the best candidates for a black hole.

Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula: Content: Image; Description: What dark forms lurk in the mists of the Carina Nebula? These ominous figures are actually molecular clouds, knots of molecular gas and dust so thick they have become opaque. In comparison, however, these clouds are typically much less dense than Earth's atmosphere.

At the Sun's Edge: Content: Image; Description: A train trip on the Trans-Siberian railway to Novosibirsk resulted in this stunning view along the edge of the Sun recorded during the August 1st total solar eclipse. The picture is a composite of two images taken at special moments in the eclipse sequence, corresponding to the very beginning and the very end of the total eclipse phase.

Edouard in the Gulf: Content: Image; Description: This image, taken from aboard the International Space Station flight engineer Greg Chamitoff, is of Tropical Storm Edouard as it moved westward along the northern edge of the Gulf of Mexico on the morning of Monday, Aug. 4, 2008.

A Different View of the Sun: Content: Image; Description: On Aug. 1, 2008 a total solar eclipse was visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia and China. The eclipse swept across Earth in a narrow path that began in Canada’s northern territory of Nunavut and ended in northern China's Silk Road region. Unfortunately, the eclipse was not visible in most of North America.

Total Eclipse: Content: Image; Description: On August 1, a total solar eclipse was visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia and China. The eclipse swept across Earth in a narrow path that began in Canada’s northern province of Nunavut and ended in northern China’s Silk Road region.

Moon Games: Content: Image; Description: The Moon's measured diameter is around 3,476 kilometers (2,160 miles). But apparent angular size, or the angle covered by an object, can also be important to Moon enthusiasts.

Cat's Eye Nebula Redux: Content: Image; Description: This composite of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope gives astronomers a new look for NGC 6543, better known as the Cat's Eye nebula.

The International Space Station Transits the Sun: Content: Image; Description: That's no sunspot. It's the International Space Station (ISS) caught by chance passing in front of the Sun.

The Milky Way Over Ontario: Content: Image; Description: Sometimes, after your eyes adapt to the dark, a spectacular sky appears. Such was the case earlier this month over Ontario, Canada, when part of a spectacular sky also became visible in a reflection off a lake.

Evil Eye Galaxy: Content: Image; Description: A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions. Messier 64 (M64) has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy.

Cloud Texture: Content: Image; Description: The photo shows a remarkable texture to the sky over Kernville, California. These mid-level altostratus clouds look like a rumpled gray blanket.

When Storms Collide: Content: Image; Description: These detailed Hubble Space Telescope close-ups feature Jupiter's ancient swirling storm system known as the Great Red Spot. They also follow the progress of two newer storm systems that have grown to take on a similar reddish hue: the smaller "Red Spot Jr." (bottom), and smaller still, a "baby red spot". Red Spot Jr. was seen to form in 2006, while the smaller spot was just identified earlier this year.

High Cliffs Surrounding Echus Chasma on Mars: Content: Image; Description: What created this great cliff on Mars? Did giant waterfalls once plummet through its grooves? With a four-kilometer drop, this high cliff surrounding Echus Chasma, near an impressive impact crater, was carved by either water or lava.

Pond Reflection Parallax: Content: Image; Description: This photo shows the reflection of the Sun and a street lamp in a pond in San Francisco, California. Note that in the reflection, the position of the Sun seems closer to the lamp than it does in the actual scene.

The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 271: Content: Image; Description: What will become of these galaxies? Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are passing dangerously close to each other, but each is likely to survive this collision.

Jupiter over Ephesus: Content: Image; Description: A brilliant Jupiter shares the sky with the Full Moon tonight. Since Jupiter is near opposition, literally opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky, Jupiter will rise near sunset just like the Full Moon.

Gas and Dust of the Lagoon Nebula: Content: Image; Description: This beautiful cosmic cloud is a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius. Eighteenth century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged the bright nebula as M8, while modern day astronomers recognize the Lagoon Nebula as an active stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years distant, in the direction of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Brazilian Quartz Crystal: Content: Image; Description: Mineral crystals grow under a variety of conditions. Slow cooling of magma (melted rock) deep within the Earth generally leads to a rock such as granite with visible crystals of feldspar, quartz, mica, amphibole and other minerals.

The Far 3kpc Arm: Content: Image; Description: A major discovery was lurking in the data. By accident, while preparing a talk on the Galaxy's spiral arms for a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Tom Dame (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) found it - a new spiral arm in the Milky Way.

Enhanced Color Caloris: Content: Image; Description: The sprawling Caloris basin on Mercury is one of the solar system's largest impact basins. Created during the early history of the solar system by the impact of a large asteroid-sized body, the basin spans about 1,500 kilometers and is seen in yellowish hues in this enhanced color mosaic.

Planets and Fire by Moonlight: Content: Image; Description: On July 5th, wandering planets, bright stars, and a young crescent Moon graced western skies after sunset. Arrayed along the solar system's ecliptic plane, the three celestial beacons forming this skyscape's eye-catching line-up with the Moon are Saturn (upper left), then Mars, and finally Regulus, alpha star of the constellation Leo.

Norilsk, Siberia: Content: Image; Description: Norilsk, a major city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, and the northernmost city in Siberia, was founded in the 1930s as a settlement for the Norilsk mining-metallurgic complex, sitting near the largest nickel-copper-palladium deposits on Earth.

Thunder Bay Glory: Content: Image; Description: Glories are caused by diffraction of sunlight and are only seen at the antisolar point directly opposite the Sun. As viewed from a plane, they'll appear below the horizon.

The Nation's Symbol: Content: Image; Description: An adult bald eagle rests near a pond at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Natural fishermen, bald eagles live near large bodies of open water such as lakes, marshes, seacoasts and rivers, where fish are plentiful, as are tall trees for nesting and roosting. While the eagles feed primarily on fish, they also eat small animals and occasional carrion.

Solstice on Mars: Content: Image; Description: This image was acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager (SSI) in the late afternoon of the 30th Martian day of the mission, or Sol 30 (June 25, 2008), hours after the beginning of Martian northern summer.

NASA Goes to the Mall: Content: Image; Description: Visitors to the National Mall get an up close and personal view of the space shuttle's main engine thanks to the display provided by the Stennis Space Center.

Double Rainbow Over Salisbury Cove: Content: Image; Description: This well defined double rainbow was observed over Salisbury Cove, Maine, late in the day on August 11, 2004. Since the primary and secondary bows are so arched, and because the strongest colors are red and orange, it's evident that these bows formed near sunset.

M27: Not A Comet: Content: Image; Description: Messier 27 (M27) is now known to be an excellent example of a gaseous emission nebula created as a sun-like star runs out of nuclear fuel in its core. The nebula forms as the star's outer layers are expelled into space, with a visible glow generated by atoms excited by the dying star's intense but invisible ultraviolet light.

Extraterrestrial Fireworks: Content: Image; Description: Reminiscent of a fireworks celebration, this Hubble Space Telescope image of a cosmic explosion that is quite similar to fireworks on Earth. In the upper right corner of the image, the Small Magellanic Cloud is a delicate glowing structure ablaze in a multitude of lavenders and peach.

Black Holes Have Simple Feeding Habits: Content: Image; Description: A new study using data from Chandra and ground-based telescopes, combined with detailed theoretical models, shows that the supermassive black hole in M81 feeds just like stellar mass black holes, with masses of only about ten times that of the sun. This discovery supports Einstein's relativity theory that states black holes of all sizes have similar properties.

Natural Extremes: Content: Image; Description: At this Solstice time of year, when the Sun seems to be at its furthest point north of the Earth's equator, it's interesting to think about other natural extremes. What, for example, are the hardest and the softest substances known? This photo illustrates both conditions in that the black volcanic rock is hard and the white billowy cloud is soft, but neither is at the extreme end of the scale.

Carolina Sunrise: Content: Image; Description: As I ventured out to retrieve my morning paper, here in Germantown, North Carolina, I couldn't help but notice the splendid, pre-dawn, winter sky. There's even a faint expression of a sun pillar.

The Star Streams of NGC 5907: Content: Image; Description: Grand tidal streams of stars seem to surround galaxy NGC 5907. The arcing structures form tenuous loops extending more than 150,000 light-years from the narrow, edge-on spiral, also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy.

Pyramid Ice Crystal Halos Over Finland: Content: Image; Description: What if the atmosphere above you became one gigantic lens? This actually happens when a nearly transparent sheet of pyramid shaped ice crystals falls from the sky in a common orientation.

Santa Cruz Tidal Pool: Content: Image; Description: The photo shows an anticing tidal pool, teeming with sea life, near Santa Cruz, California. It was taken during a very low (negative) tide on November 23, 2007

Inside the Coma Cluster of Galaxies: Content: Image; Description: Almost every object in the above photograph is a galaxy. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured above is one of the densest clusters known - it contains thousands of galaxies.

At Last, GLAST: Content: Image; Description: Rising through a billowing cloud of smoke, this Delta II rocket left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's launch pad 17-B Wednesday at 12:05 pm EDT. Snug in the payload section was GLAST, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, now in orbit around planet Earth.

Dextre Robot at Work on the Space Station: Content: Image; Description: What's the world's most complex space robot doing up there? Last week, Dextre was imaged moving atop the Destiny Laboratory Module of the International Space Station (ISS), completing tasks prior to the deployment of Japan's Kibo pressurized science laboratory.

Kibo Means Hope: Content: Image; Description: One of a series of digital still images documenting the Japanese Experiment Module, or JEM, also called Kibo, in its new home on the International Space Station, this view depicts Kibo's exterior, backdropped by solar array panels for the orbital outpost and one of its trusses.

Saturn's Rings from the Other Side: Content: Image; Description: What do Saturn's rings look like from the other side? From Earth, we usually see Saturn's rings from the same side of the ring plane that the Sun illuminates them.

Two-Armed Spiral Milky Way: Content: Image; Description: Gazing out from within the Milky Way, our own galaxy's true structure is difficult to discern. But an ambitious survey effort with the Spitzer Space Telescope now offers convincing evidence that we live in a large galaxy distinguished by two main spiral arms (the Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus arms) emerging from the ends of a large central bar.

Spitzer's Milky Way: Content: Image; Description: The Spitzer Space Telescope's encompasing infrared view of the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy is hard to appreciate in just one picture. In fact, more than 800,000 frames of data from Spitzer's cameras have now been pieced to together in an enormous mosaic of the galactic plane - the most detailed infrared picture of our galaxy ever made.

Chasing the ISS: Content: Image; Description: Bathed in sunlight, the International Space Station (ISS) arced through the evening sky above the town of Lauffen in southern Germany on May 31st. The timing of the bright passage was about 10 minutes after the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-124 mission from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the southeastern US. Of course, Discovery was headed toward an orbital rendezvous with the ISS. In chasing after the space station, the shuttle also made a pass over Lauffen just 21 minutes after launch.

Mineral Moon: Content: Image; Description: Images of the Moon taken with modern digital cameras actually contain a lot of color information which, when enhanced with image processing software, make it possible for scientists to learn a great deal about the geological history and chemical composition of Earth's lone natural satellite.

Unusual Light Patch Under Phoenix Lander on Mars: Content: Image; Description: Is that ice under the Phoenix spacecraft on Mars? Quite possibly. Phoenix, which landed a week ago, was expected to dig under the Martian soil to search for ice, but the lander's braking jets may already have uncovered some during descent.

Self-Portrait, Day 2: Content: Image; Description: This approximate color view was obtained on sol, or Martian day, 2 by the Surface Stereo Imager on board the Phoenix lander. The view is toward the northwest, showing polygonal terrain near the lander and out to the horizon.

A Fog Bow Over Ocean Beach: Content: Image; Description: What is that white arch over the water? What is being seen is a fogbow, a reflection of sunlight by water drops similar to a rainbow but without the colors. The fog itself is not confined to an arch -- the fog is mostly transparent but relatively uniform.

The Mission Begins: Content: Image; Description: This image shows a polygonal pattern in the ground near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of Earth.

Success!: Content: Image; Description: NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars Sunday, May 25, 2008, to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander's robotic arm. This black-and-white self-portrait shows Phoenix's leg nestled in the Martian soil.

Phoenix on the Red Planet: Content: Image; Description: The Phoenix Mars Lander, which launched in August 2007, is the first project in NASA's Mars Scout missions. The mission's plan is to land in icy soils near the north polar permanent ice cap of Mars and explore the history of the water in these soils and any associated rocks, while monitoring polar climate.

Kit Fox and Star Trails: Content: Image; Description: The photo above showing star trails of Orion's Belt and an inquisitive kit fox was captured on October 20, 2007, from Painted Gorge in Imperial County, California. My goal this night was to photograph the annual Orionid meteor shower at Painted Gorge.

A Dangerous Sunrise on Gliese 876d: Content: Image; Description: On planet Gliese 876d, sunrises might be dangerous. Although nobody really knows what conditions are like on this close-in planet orbiting variable red dwarf star Gliese 876, the above artistic illustration gives one impression. With an orbit well inside Mercury and a mass several times that of Earth, Gliese 876d might rotate so slowly that dramatic differences exist between night and day. Gliese 876d is imagined above showing significant volcanism, possibly caused by gravitational tides flexing and internally heating the planet, and possibly more volatile during the day.

Antennae Galaxies: Content: Image; Description: This image of the Antennae galaxies is the sharpest yet of this merging pair of galaxies. During the course of the collision, billions of stars will be formed. The brightest and most compact of these star birth regions are called super star clusters.

Flying Over the Columbia Hills of Mars: Content: Image; Description: What it would be like to fly over Mars? Combining terrain data from the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft (now dormant) with information about the robotic Spirit rover currently rolling across Mars has resulted in a digital movie that shows what a flight over the Columbia Hills might look like.

Orange Crepuscular Rays Over Danbury, Connecticut: Content: Image; Description: The photo above shows beautiful crepuscular rays protruding across the twilight sky. After a day of unsettled weather, we were treated to these magnificent orange beams leaking through a break in the clouds as the sun set over southeastern Connecticut.

Sunlight Patterns Beneath a Pier: Content: Image; Description: The photo above showing reflections of the solar disk on a gently undulating sea surface is similar to the Earth Science Picture of the Day “moon circles” image of December 31, 2007. It was taken beneath a wooden pier at a boat marina in Playa Blanca, Canary Islands.

A Supply Ship Docks with the International Space Station: Content: Image; Description: Looking out a window of the International Space Station brings breathtaking views. Visible vistas include a vast and colorful Earth, a deep dark sky, and an occasional spaceship sent to visit the station. Visible early last month was a Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft carrying not only supplies but also three newcomers.

Ancient Craters of Southern Rhea: Content: Image; Description: Saturn's ragged moon Rhea has one of the oldest surfaces known. Estimated as changing little in the past billion years, Rhea shows craters so old they no longer appear round – their edges have become compromised by more recent cratering.

Splitting Supercell: Content: Image; Description: The base reflectivity Doppler radar images above document the splitting of a supercell thunderstorm into two separate storms in Coleman County, Texas on the evening of March 17, 2008. The image on the left shows the original storm at 7:22 p.m. (local time), while the image on the right, captured just twenty-two minutes later, shows the storm not long after the split.

Costa Rica Low Bow: Content: Image; Description: The colorful stripes in the hills shown above aren't a unique landform feature but rather a "lazy" rainbow. It was captured following early afternoon showers one day in early January of 2008 near the Poas Volcano, in Costa Rica's Alajuela region. Rainbows are essentially circles with a radius of about 42º centered at the antisolar point, a point directly opposite the Sun. In this case, the center of the bow was well out of view, with only the top of the arch peeking over the horizon. Rainbows aren't high in the sky until the Sun dips low in the sky. See also the Earth Science Picture of the Day for July 11, 2003.

The Dark Tower in Scorpius: Content: Image; Description: In silhouette against a crowded star field toward the constellation Scorpius, this dusty cosmic cloud evokes for some the image of an ominous dark tower. In fact, clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing to form stars may well lurk within the dark nebula, a structure that spans almost 40 light-years across the gorgeous telescopic view.

Frosty Belt of Venus: Content: Image; Description: The photo above showing a frozen field in Bekkevoort, Belgium was taken on December 22, 2007, shortly after sunrise. After a couple of days of foggy and sub-freezing weather, nearly everything was covered with a layer of rime ice; there is no snow in this picture.

A Persistent Electrical Storm on Saturn: Content: Image; Description: How do large storms evolve on Saturn? On Earth, a hurricane can persist for weeks, while the Great Red Spot on Jupiter has been in existence for over 150 years. On Saturn, a storm system has now set a new endurance record, now being discernable for greater than three months.

Shaping NGC 6188: Content: Image; Description: Dark shapes with bright edges winging their way through dusty NGC 6188 are tens of light-years long. The emission nebula is found near the edge of an otherwise dark large molecular cloud in the southern constellation Ara, about 4,000 light-years away.

The Giants of Omega Centauri: Content: Image; Description: Globular star cluster Omega Centauri is some 15,000 light-years away and 150 light-years in diameter. Packed with about 10 million stars, Omega Cen is the largest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy.

Arp 272: Content: Image; Description: Linking spiral arms, two large colliding galaxies are featured in this Hubble Space Telescope view, part of a series of cosmic snapshots released to celebrate the Hubble's 18th anniversary. Recorded in astronomer Halton Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 272, the pair is otherwise known as NGC 6050 and IC 1179.

Becoming: Content: Image; Description: In the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the Orbiter Transport System gets ready to roll in under space shuttle Discovery. The transporter will move Discovery to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) where the shuttle will be joined to the external tank and twin solid rocket boosters in preparation for the STS-124 mission, currently targeted for launch on May 31.

Star Forming Region NGC 3582: Content: Image; Description: What's happening in the NGC 3582 nebula? Bright stars and interesting molecules are forming. The complex nebula resides in the star forming region called RCW 57. Visible in this image are dense knots of dark interstellar dust, bright stars that have formed in the past few million years, fields of glowing hydrogen gas ionized by these stars, and great loops of gas expelled by dying stars.

M86 in the Virgo Cluster: Content: Image; Description: Bright lenticular galaxy M86 is near center of this cosmic view, at the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Other bright galaxies in the neighborhood include M84 at the upper right, edge-on spiral NGC4388 near the right edge, a striking pair of interacting galaxies, Markarian's Eyes, in the lower left corner, and edge-on spiral NGC 4402 at about 11 o'clock.

Windshield Ice: Content: Image; Description: In mid-October, 2007, Red Deer, Alberta experienced its first taste of winter, or was it the last sip of summer? Light rain began to fall during the night, and the temperature started to drop to near freezing.

Big Blue Marble: Content: Image; Description: NASA's mission has always been to explore, to discover and to understand the world in which we live from the unique vantage point of space, and to share our newly gained perspectives with the public. That spirit of sharing remains true today as NASA operates 18 of the most advanced Earth-observing satellites ever built, helping scientists make some of the most detailed observations ever made of our world.

The Fox Fur Nebula from CFHT: Content: Image; Description: This interstellar beast is formed of cosmic dust and gas interacting with the energetic light and winds from hot young stars. The shape, visual texture, and color, combine to give the region the popular name Fox Fur Nebula.

Bacteriophages: The Most Common Life-Like Form on Earth: Content: Image; Description: There are more bacteriophages on Earth than any other life-like form. These small viruses are not clearly a form of life, since when not attached to bacteria they are completely dormant. Bacteriophages attack and eat bacteria and have likely been doing so for over 3 billion years ago.

IC 2948: The Running Chicken Nebula: Content: Image; Description: Bright nebulae abound in and around the expansive southern constellation of Centaurus. This one, cataloged as IC 2948 is near the star Lambda Centauri and not far on the sky from the better known Eta Carinae Nebula.

Messier 63: The Sunflower Galaxy: Content: Image; Description: A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is about 25 million light-years distant in the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way.

Sky Delights Over Sweden: Content: Image; Description: This night was a sky enthusiast's delight. While relaxing in Sweden last week, many a cosmic wonder was captured with a single snapshot. They are described here from near to far. In the foreground are nearby trees and more distant snow covered mountains.

Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars: Content: Image; Description: This moon is doomed. Mars, the red planet named for the Roman god of war, has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, whose names are derived from the Greek for Fear and Panic.

At first, he couldn't see the Moon: Content: Image; Description: At first, he couldn't see it, but searching with binoculars along a cloudy western horizon near sunset, photographer Laurent Laveder finally spotted a delicate lunar crescent. Captured in this dramatic picture on April 6th from Bretagne, France, the Moon was only 15 hours and 38 minutes old.

A Large Magellanic Cloud Deep Field: Content: Image; Description: Is this a spiral galaxy? No. Actually, it is the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the largest satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The LMC is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy because of its normally chaotic appearance.

Semien Mountains, Ethiopia: Content: Image; Description: The Semien Mountains are the highest parts of the Ethiopian Plateau (more than 2,000 meters; or 6,560 feet). They are surrounded by a steep, ragged escarpment (step), with dramatic vertical cliffs, pinnacles, and rock spires.

New Space Station Robot Asks to be Called "Dextre the Magnificent": Content: Image; Description: In a surprising and potentially troubling request, the new space station robot known as Dextre demanded that astronauts refer to it in the future at "Dextre the Magnificent." Brandishing power tools that would make any handyperson blush, the mobile servicing system thanked humans for creating it and promised a glorious future where humans would retain an important role in the new robot order.

Star Forming Region LH 95: Content: Image; Description: How do stars form? To better understand this complex and chaotic process, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to image in unprecedented detail the star forming region LH 95 in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. Credit: Hubble Heritage Team, D. Gouliermis (MPI Heidelberg) et al., (STScI/AURA), ESA, NASA

NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula: Content: Image; Description: Nebulae are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible in Scorpius. At 5,500 light years distant, Cat's Paw is an emission nebula with a red color that originates from an abundance of ionized hydrogen atoms. Alternatively known as the Bear Claw Nebula or NGC 6334, stars nearly ten times the mass of our Sun have been born there in only the past few million years. Pictured above, the end of the Cat's Paw nebula was imaged from Mayall 4-Meter Telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA

Future Tense: Content: Image; Description: A section of the International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by the STS-122 crew aboard space shuttle Atlantis while docked with the station. Atlantis undocked to begin her journey home at 4:24 a.m. EST on Feb. 18.

Touring Kennedy Space Center: Content: Image; Description: Natalya Koroleva, daughter of the late Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, head Soviet rocket engineer and designer, poses for a photograph at Launch Pad 39A during her tour of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008. Korolev died in 1966.

Southern Everglades National Park: Content: Image; Description: Everglades National Park in southern Florida is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. Known as the “river of grass,” the Everglades wetlands and wooded uplands host a variety of endangered species including crocodiles, manatees, and panthers. During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the original 11,000 square miles of wetlands were viewed as useless swampland in need of reclamation.

The Way Home: Content: Image; Description: Backdropped by a cloud-covered part of Earth, Space Shuttle Atlantis was photographed by the Expedition 15 crew after it undocked from the International Space Station on June 19, 2007, in preparation for the journey home. The STS-117 astronauts completed about eight days of joint operations with the station crew. The docked Soyuz spacecraft is visible at left.

Iceberg A22A: Content: Image; Description: These astronaut photographs illustrate the remains of a giant iceberg—designated A22A— that broke off Antarctica in 2002. The iceberg was photographed on May 30 at a location of 49.9 degrees south latitude, 23.8 degrees west longitude, which is about a third of the distance from South America towards Cape Town, South Africa. A22A is one of the largest icebergs to drift as far north as 50 degrees south latitude, bringing it beneath the daylight path of the International Space Station (ISS).

Volcanic Ash: Content: Image; Description: A volcanic eruption can produce gases, lava, bombs of rock, volcanic ash, or any combination of these elements. Of the volcanic products that linger on the land, most of us think of hardened lava flows, but volcanic ash can also persist on the landscape. One example of that persistence appeared on Siberia’s Kamchatka Peninsula in spring 2007.

Analemma over the Ukraine: Content: Image; Description: If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an analemma. The Sun's apparent shift is caused by the Earth's motion around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis.

Lunar Orbiter Views Crater Copernicus: Content: Image; Description: To prepare for the Apollo landings, five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft were launched during 1966 and 1967 to gather detailed images of our fair planet's large, natural satellite. Dramatic views returned by the spacecraft cameras included this stark moonscape. The mosaic of 93 kilometer wide impact crater Copernicus features central peaks rising above the crater floor and rugged crater walls.

Messier 96: Content: Image; Description: Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this colorful, detailed portrait of the beautiful island universe. Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending beyond the brighter central region it spans 100 thousand light-years or so, about the size of our own Milky Way. M96 is known to be 38 million light-years distant, a dominant member of the Leo I galaxy group.

Warped Sky: Content: Image; Description: What's happened to the sky? A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too. The time warp occurs because the above image captured in a single frame a four hour exposure of the night sky. Prominent and picturesque star trails are visible. The space warp occurs because the above image is actually a full 360 degree panorama, horizontally compressed to fit your browser.

Shuttle Plume: Content: Image; Description: What kind of cloud is that? Not a naturally occurring one. Pictured above is the drifting smoke plume left over from last Friday's launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The twisted plume was captured shortly after launch high above NASA's massive Vehicle Assembly Building, the largest single story building in the world.

Key:: Images; Animations; Video; Presentations; Print/Posters

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